There have been hundreds of thousands of reported cases of child sexual assault and child rape committed by leaders in the Catholic Church. In America, most towns and cities have ordinances which forbid “adult” themed stories and businesses from being within a certain distance from schools. Maybe there ought to be an ordinance restricting churches from being within a certain distance from schools.

A few years ago, an adult store marketed toward women opened up in West Chester, PA where I used to live and work. The local Catholic Church went nuts. They circulated petitions, staged protests, and lobbied town officials to shut down this place of business. They claimed that it was too close to their church and too close to their school.

What would it matter if there was a female oriented adult store in close proximity to a church or a school? This store poses no danger to children in any way. The Catholic Church on the other hand does pose a potential danger to children. I don’t think it is safe for children to be in close proximity to Catholic priests (or other Catholic leaders) given the high number of incidents of sexual crimes in relation to the Catholic leadership.

While it is doubtful that such an ordinance would ever get passed in America, I think it is worth pursuing. Perhaps if we could organize a petition and letter writing campaign of our own, we could show that there is a public concern and a concern for our children that we need to address. What do you think?

Staks, I think that would be a silly thing to promote. I don’t think there should be restrictions on where churches or retial business can be located. Your suggestion appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to religious censorship. I agree that they were wrong for not letting the bussiness open. Making churches stay a certain distance from schools is just as wrong. As the cliche goes, Two wrongs don’t … you get the idea.

Garrick McElroy

I think a better thing to do would be a counter protest to their protests. Show that they have no right to tell a business where it can and can’t open.

PRG

Adult stores have all closed windows and check ID for people who enter…it isn’t much of a threat. Unless someone over 18 offers to buy porn the way some over 18 buy cigarettes for their younger friends! Churches near the schools do hand out info, though. I remember some religious people giving out bibles on the way out of school. The school made a special announcement saying “the people handing out literature are in no way connected to the school and taking the literature is not required”–something like that.

http://www.dangeroustalk.net Staks

actually, I don’t even think the store has porn and if they do, it is very little.

SmilodonsRetreat

On the face of it, I like the idea. My wife would be free to pursue her art without the problems associated with being unemployed. I enjoy my work and could continue it or switch to writing (read: playing games and refreshing facebook).

The question is, where does this money come from? Or maybe not, a quick calculation shows that it would take 750 billion dollars a month to do this. If we set an age limit as 18, then it would be (presently) about 630 billion a month. What about seniors on Social Security? Do they get the income? The SS trust contains about 2.7 trillion, which would cover the $2800 for about 4 months. Do we stop SS and just give the same money to everyone over 18?

I’m not sure $2800 is doable. The national poverty line is about $1,000 a month. At $2,000 a month (over 18 only) we get $450 billion a month. The SS trust could pay this for about 5 months and a 50% tax on all sales would cover it as well.

I don’t know if that helps because the prices of everything would increase by more than 50% to cover those taxes. Everyone should still be above poverty level (barely), but they would still have to work for anything more than ramen and mac and cheese.

The next question I have is, if we were to do this (and I’m not against it), I’m not sure that we have the culture for working without massive recompense. After hurricane Rita (and to a lesser extent Ike), every store in the city I lived in was hiring people. They still couldn’t get anyone to come in to work. And this was in a town with one of the top three unemployment rates in Texas.

I would remain working because I enjoy my job. I think kids between 16-18 would work to get some income. But the adults who work at fast food places (and don’t own it) would they work? Maybe, there would be a surge in small business (except with a 50% tax rate???) and people would open and run burger joints because they want to rather than because they have to work. But running a small business is generally much more work than working for someone else.

People would want to buy things, but who’s going to sell it to them or manufacture it for them? I’m talking about things that are generally hard to do with robotics… of course, the guy who invents a robotic burger cook will make millions…